Nutraceutical benefits have been associated with omega 3 fatty acid DHA for healthy individuals' mental performance.
Omega 3 fatty acid DHA has nutraceutical benefits for Alzheimer's ahead of diagnosis, it has been claimed.
Nutraceutical industry magazine Nutraceuticals World reports the findings of Martek in a trial of the ingredient on healthy people.
Martek - which develops DHA as a functional ingredient under the life'sDHA brand - found beneficial effects in terms of protecting against cognitive degradation for individuals who had not yet been diagnosed with Alzheimer's or dementia.
Those who were given the functional ingredient were seen to exhibit less memory degradation over time when compared with other adults who were otherwise healthy.
However, the nutraceutical industry magazine adds that a similar project undertaken by the National Institute on Aging yielded less positive results.
This research, entitled the Alzheimer's Disease Cooperative Study, sought to learn whether DHA can benefit individuals who have already been diagnosed with mild to moderate Alzheimer's.
However, no protective effect or reversal of degradation was found in those already diagnosed as suffering from the condition.
